The Role Of The Gods In The Aztec Civilization

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

It was clear through the human sacrifice that the Aztecs practiced that they had no regard for the quality of human life and did it for the benefit of their society. First of all, they would kill thousands of people at a time, and then they ate the arms, thighs, and heads leaving the bodies to feed to the wild animals (Document G). This shows that the Aztecs did not care about the people that they were killing, only about sacrificing to the gods. Secondly, many say that the Aztecs sacrificed human beings for the sole purpose of pleasing the gods. In the eyes of the Aztec religion, if then gods were happy with the Aztecs, then that they would be blessed. It is clear the Aztecs sacrificed to make their civilization the most successful of their time. In contrast, it is also a popular belief that the reason for human sacrifice was for cannibalism. It is a possible that since they had no animals such as cattle or lamb, they had to resort to eating human beings (Document J). This theory demonstrates that the Aztecs valued the well- being of their society over human life. Regardless of what approach regarding human

Each year, the Totonacs were forced to send hundreds of children to the altars of Tenochtitlan, a city within the Aztec empire, for sacrifice, therefore their hatred was prominent. [10] Whereas the Tlaxcalans, had been at war with the Aztecs for about a century, to the Tlaxcalans, the Spanish represented their only hope. [11] For this reason, Tlacochcalcatl forged an alliance with Cortés. Before his alliances, his army only had 508 men to conquer the Aztec empire, which had millions of people. Cortes had 50,000 Tlaxcalans backing him up for the re-conquest of Tenochtitlan, as well as 25,000 combined Indians allies.

The reading “An Aztec account of the Spanish Conquest” is mainly about a story when Hernan Cortes came for the first time at Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City). The Aztecs believes that when Hernan Cortes arrive they believe the he was Quetzalcoatl, the main god in the Aztec culture. Cortes were friendly invite to the Aztec city as the most important guest, the Aztec people made a big party to celebrate the return of their god, but the Aztec people did not know Cortes intentions of conquer the empire. Later the Aztecs were betrayed by Hernan Cortes. Cortes’s army began to attack the city and at the end they take over the city.

The book focuses on how the Spanish slowly exploited the Aztec resources to the point where they started killing people for no reason but to exterminate them. One of the turning events during the Spanish conquest is the massacre in the main temple during the fiesta Toxcatl. The Aztecs begged their king to hold festivities in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli. After they got permission, they very carefully prepared for festivities and sworn to do their best dancing at the festivities to show the Spanish the beauty of their rituals. The Spanish showed that they are interested to learn more about the festivities, but they were planning to murder all the celebrants. When the celebrations began, the

The Aztec and Maya were both American Indian people. The Aztec were ruled by a mighty empire in Mexico during the 1400's and early 1500's. The Maya however, developed a magnificent civilization in Central America and Southern Mexico. Both civilizations contributed a great deal to the modern world and invented items that are still used today.

     The Aztecs were an American Indian people who ruled a mighty empire in Mexico from the 1400's to the 1500's. The Aztecs had one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas and built cities as large as any in Europe at that time. They also practiced a remarkable religion that affected every part of their lives and featured human sacrifice. The Aztecs built towering temples, created huge sculptures, and held impressive ceremonies all for the purpose of worshipping their gods. The Spaniards destroyed their magnificent empire in the year 1521, but the Aztecs left a lasting mark on Mexican life and culture .

It is also explained that the tlamatinime became aware of the meaning this world holds and discovered that they must wait to look for the truth in the world of the dead and in the place of the gods. So they left behind songs and poems in order to ensure the education of the next generations. they believed nothing on the earth would survive and it would all perish so they passed down their knowledge through word of mouth. The book explains the importance of the Aztec peoples development of philosophical

In Aztec belief, the way you die defines your afterlife. Normal people dying normal deaths constitutes a normal afterlife. (Dockray, 2013) Mictlan(Hell) is pretty much the default setting. Within Mictlan there are three main gods: Mictlantecuhtli, the god of death, his wife, Mictecacihuatl and Xolotl. Xolotl is the deity that guides the sun through Mictlan every night, a kind of guard dog of hell.

The Aztecs had many beliefs that were based on the end of the world and nature. The Aztec religion focused on keeping a balance in nature. They believed that one mistake could lead to a natural disaster or could cause the sun to stop rotating. Among the many hundreds of gods that the Aztecs adored, there was a particularly interesting god that stood out from the rest. This god was Quetzalcoatl, otherwise knows as the “Feathered Serpent”. According to legend Quetzalcoatl created all humans with his own blood. The Aztecs believed that they needed to repay Quetzalcoatl and all the gods for their sacrifice by performing rituals. In

Ever wondered what Aztecs were anticipating the moment they were about to die? THESIS: Aztec afterlife was not seen as death, but just as another level of consciousness and existence, and learning about Aztec

The religious aspects of both the Aztec and the Incan civilizations were based on several different deities. The Aztec empire had more than 128 gods and goddesses. The most important of these gods is Tlaloc (Life god) and Huitzilopochtli (Sun god). These gods could be represented in human, animal or direction form. Aztec gods were worshipped through pyramid shaped religious buildings and ritual sacrificing. Human

There were many different methods the Aztecs used to sacrifice their victims but most sacrifices centered on the method of heart extraction. The victims were, “thrust onto the stone, where a temple priest cut through their chest wall with a ritual flint knife,” and the heart was, “[offered] to the sun for vitality and nourishment,” (“Aztec Human Sacrifices”). There was also the act of burning the victim alive in the sacrificial fire but before they reached death they were taken out and their heart would be taken out (Callery 33). Victims were not the only ones that were sacrificed; priests also conducted a method of sacrifice called bloodletting. The priest would begin by punctuating his tongue or any other body part and then proceeding to letting blood flow out (“Aztec Human Sacrifices”). A torture method of the Aztecs that might be

During the Post Classical Era, civilizations in Mesoamerica continued to practice polytheism because of its connection with everyday life. In contrast to the monotheistic gods of Eurasia and Africa, Mesoamerica continued to worship multiple gods that represented natural phenomena because of their lack of need for reform. Religion in Mesoamerica Empires such as the Inca, Aztec, Mayan, Olmec, etc grew with the empires, and therefore was born in a time where order and peace was already achieved, unlike that of Islam or Buddhism, where their

The first being political political: the subjugation of enemy city states in order expand the empire and demonstrate power and superiority. The second objective was religious and socioeconomic: the taking of captives to be sacrificed in religious ceremonies. According to Friar Diego Durán’s accounts of the Aztec civilization, Tlacaelel - a king of the Aztec Empire - arranged with leaders of other Pre-Columbian city states to engage in ritual battles that would provide all parties with enough sacrificial victims to appease the gods. Tlacaelel reigned over a period of great famine in the empire in year 1450. The Aztec Religion believed that Gods required sacrifices to keep all running smoothly. There were several gods that the Aztecs worshiped to for agricultural purposes, for example: Tláloc, who sends rain and nourishes maize7, Centeotl, the god of maize in general, Teteoinnan, the god of agriculture as well as sexual fertility, and Xipe Totec, god of rituals and sacrifice8. The Aztecs believed that through worshipping certain gods, and generously providing them with a steady supply of sacrifices and blood, the gods would in return keep things balanced. When there was not enough victims, Tlacaelel resorted to these battles to collect more humans to be sacrificed. War was a dominant aspect of the Aztec civilization, and they aspired to exponentially expand their empire through military conquest, while also collecting tribute from the